House and Garden 
Massachusetts 
New York 
Pennsylvania 
Maine “The Briars” Bar Harbor 
New Hamp- “Loon Point” Dublin 
shire “ Mastlands ” Cornish 
Mr. Croly’s Cornish 
“ Green Hill ” Brookline 
“ Woodlea ” Scarborough 
Mr. Stanford White’s St. James 
“ Longcroft ” Mamaroneck 
“ SwarthmoreLodge” Bryn Mawr 
“ Fairacres ” Jenkintown 
Mr. Borie’s Rvdal 
“ Brandywine Farm” Lenape 
“ Aysgarth ” Abington 
The character ot the type lies first in 
its plan, which is so much on the lines 
of a basilican church, that we may take 
the technical terms of ecclesiastical 
architecture to describe it. The Ameri¬ 
can garden has usually a “ west end ” 
approached from the house,and displays 
as its body a long “ nave ” terminated with 
an “apse,” on the boundary of which—as 
it were the “ Bishop’s Seat ”—is set the alcove 
or exedra; while in the place of the “altar” 
in the center of the circle is usually a dial, 
fountain or balustraded pool. The “nave” 
too has its “altar,” a fountain or basin of 
water to which all centers, while vine-covered 
alleys (or pergolas) constitute the “aisles.” 
The details of disposition vary, of course— 
a court or “ narthex,” as it were, may pre¬ 
cede the “ nave.” There may be 
septal ” as well as “ terminal apses 
the “ exedra ” may be at the side instead of 
at the end of the “ nave.” Often there is 
the square “ chevet ” in place of the 
“ trail- 
y » 
or 
semi- 
THE SOUTHERN END OF MR. BORIE S HOUSE 
Showing a Portion of the Arbor of GourJs 
GARDENING AT THE FRONT OF MR. BORIE S HOUSE 
circular. But generally the lay-out presents 
the unity and proportions of a church-plan 
rather than the connection of a series of 
courts and chambers which constitute most 
frequently the English manner of plan. 
Next to this American plan the first thing 
that strikes the English critic is the limited 
and (from the English point of view) per¬ 
verted use of the grass plot in the lay-out. 
The lawn is the necessary basis and setting 
of the Englishman’s garden, for turf close 
cut is the natural carpet for his sauntering 
and garden games. The American gardener 
uses grass differently, as a background in 
his scheme or the filling up of corners. 
Usually he would seem to hedge it in with 
his flower borders, so that practically 
it is unapproachable—where, too, its 
English quality of smoothness goes 
tor little. One must understand that 
the American climate only with diffi¬ 
culty allows what is so easily got in 
England—a close fine sward that all 
the year round will have a fresh ver¬ 
dure which treading does not injure. 
In the Californian gardens of “ Beau¬ 
lieu,” at Cupertino, a grass parterre 
is carefully tended as a show feature 
—an exotic maintained at great cost. 
In the Eastern States turf must be 
more easily grown. (See, for example, 
“ The Garth” at Strafford, Penna.) 
But one observes unexpected uses of 
it where it is set to cover steep slopes 
as ugly as railway embankments ; or 
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